Senate demands ₦300bn emergency fund for deplorable Niger roads

The Senate has urged the Federal Government to deploy an emergency intervention fund of N300 billion for critical roads in Niger State linking economic corridors in the North and South.

It lamented the deplorable state of critical roads across the country and resolved that a national legislative roundtable discussion on the state of infrastructure be convoked.

The proposed roundtable talks would bring all critical stakeholders in the transport and logistics industries together with a view to identifying urgent actions needed.

The decision was reached based on a motion by Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi (APC, Niger North).

The senator called attention to ugly scene playing out in Niger State since February 24 to September 2021 in which heavy trucks and tanker drivers blocked all entry and exit roads to protest the horrible state of federal roads passing through the state.

He said, “Recall that Niger State has the longest federal roads network of 2, 263 km out of a total of 32, 000 km of federal roads. The federal roads in Niger State stretch from the Abuja-Kaduna end to the Jebba-Mokwa-Makera Tegina-Birnin Gwarimpa-Kaduna Road to the Mokwa-New Bussa Agwara-Kigera end, which lies on the border with the Republic of Benin.

“Overall, the following are critical linkage roads within Niger State that provide logistical and vehicular movements between the North and South , especially the South West and North West corridors.”

He also said, “Because of the massive land area of Niger State at 76, 363 km (representing about nine per cent of the total land area of the country ), all movements from North to South substantially traverse the state.

“Indeed, the massive haulage of heavy industrial goods such as petroleum products, iron rods, cement, finished manufactured goods, machines and equipment, electronic materials and goods, building materials etc., in which trucks and tankers are overloaded seriously devastate the roads .

“Cursory observation and reports indicate that many trucks and tankers are loaded with up to 90,000 tonnes of goods and all vehicles are consistently loaded well above their approved tonnage.”